My name is Carter LaCorte and I am a 5th grader from Long Island, NY. I started this blog so I could write articles about the NHL and MLB. My favorite teams are the New York Yankees and the New York Islanders.

Friday, September 30, 2016

Arizona Coyotes 2016-17 season preview

The Arizona Coyotes signed a lot of players this season and they re-signed a lot of players too. Shane Doan is back for another year, and so is Michael Stone and Jarred Tinordi. Connor Murphy was also signed to a 6 year deal. The club lost depth in Alex Tanguay, (who is yet to sign a contract with a team) Boyd Gordon (PHI) and Kyle Chipchura (KHL), so

they went out and signed Radim Vrbata and Chris Mueller to one year deals. They also signed Luke Schenn to 2 years and Jamie McGinn to 3 years. In the first round of the 2016 NHL draft, Arizona selected C Clayton Keller with the 7th overall pick and D Jakub Chychrun with the 16th pick which was acquired from Detroit. Keller could be the Coyotes' second line center of the future behind Dylan Strome. Chychrun could pair up well with either Oliver Ekman-Larsson or Connor Murphy in a couple of years. The goaltending is by far the weakest part of the team. Mike Smith is dropping off like cray and Louis Domingue isn't a starter yet. Justin Peters signed to a one year deal but most likely will play in the AHL. The predicted lines look like this:
Max Domi- Martin Hanzal- Anthony Duclair
Jamie McGinn- Dylan Strome- Radim Vrbata
Ryan White- Brad Richardson- Shane Doan
Jordan Martinook- Christian Dvorak- Tyler Gaudet
On defense is:
Oliver Ekman-Larsson- Michael Stone
Alex Goligoski- Connor Murphy
Luke Schenn- Zbynek Michalek
C Chris Mueller and D Kevin Connauton are scratched and Mike Smith and Louis Domingue in the cage.
For my prediction, the Arizona Coyotes are a team with a lot of young talent in Max Domi, Anthony Duclair and Dylan Strome but they will not be a playoff team in 2016-17.